


Detroit: Become Yourself

by OhDang_m4tt



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Androids, Angst, Asian-American Character, Asperger Syndrome, Being Lost, Civil Rights Movement, Confusion, Depression, Detroit, Detroit Police Department (Detroit: Become Human), Developing Relationship, Diary/Journal, Fantasy Fulfillment, Gay, Gay Male Character, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, I Don't Even Know, I Tried, Inspired by K-Drama | Korean Drama, Interns & Internships, Loneliness, Long, M/M, My First Fanfic, POV First Person, Personal Growth, Personal struggle, Police, Questioning, Romantic Friendship, Self-Insert, Shock, Social Anxiety, Social Commentary, Southern Accent, Suicide, Tags Are Hard, What Was I Thinking?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:26:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24673828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhDang_m4tt/pseuds/OhDang_m4tt
Summary: Michael relocated from his hometown to Detroit to forge himself his own livelihood during troublesome times when humans had major animosities against androids due to mass unemployment. Shocked by how different Detroit is from his hometown and how androids are almost everywhere, he had a difficult time adjusting to this new city. Then, a detective android named Connor was sent in from CyberLife to assist the police. Michael couldn't help himself wanting to take a closer look at Connor which is more than what Michael has bargained for as he struggles with his feelings to himself and androids while encountering different androids along the way.
Relationships: Connor (Detroit: Become Human)/Original Male Character(s)
Kudos: 5





	1. The Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> This is my very first fanfiction here on AO3. It's a self-insert but I tried my best not make it like a blatant self-insert. Hey, a guy's gotta fulfill his fantasies, you know. Please take some time to read this and give me feedback on what I should work on for my future chapters. I appreciate y'all very much (●´ω｀●)～☆
> 
> Expect a decent amount of fixin' here and there as I publish more chapters so apologies if I substantially revised on the way.

**Chapter 1 – The Introduction**

_Monday August 2, 2038_

It was a balmy morning in the great city of Detroit. The 35-minute morning commute to DPD Central Station was smooth as always from that automated traffic on them highways even though I still carry my own driver's license and own my Ford truck just in case.

Oh, I need to start introducing myself!

Howdy! My name's Michael Tran and I'd graduated from college as a forensic science major and I was dang lucky enough to snag an internship with Detroit PD even though job huntin' post grad was a huge battle to struggle through. Thank goodness I had a very high GPA, good recs to vouch me, and maybe some networking advantages to thanks to my uncle. Apparently, they needed another pair of human hands and brainpower to help out with something despite Detroit PD using them androids to do their grunt work. Since my uncle's a regional manager at General Autos, I had good reason to relocate there.

Speakin' of androids, they're such an interesting societal phenomenon to witness, 'specially up in Detroit.

Since I moved like a week ago, I was damn shocked and mind-blown over how androids are literally everywhere. Y'all see androids walking with their owners as if they're like maid servants or something. Y'all see androids doin' dirty work like android janitors or construction workers. Y'all even see androids working in retail shop and I thought those self-checkout machines are a huge bother. Despite the mass job displacement of humans, there’re some job areas that're safe from androidation like corporate customer service, church clergy, psychologists, and of course police detectives… for now. Yeah, I'm from a small town where they voted to ban androids. People didn't like the idea of "plastic people" ruining their cozy small-town lives and found them very, _very_ creepy

Well duh, Detroit is CyberLife central but to witness the scale on how much people depend on androids for their livelihoods, I couldn't get a good grasp on how that could’d been possible. I guess it was just my small-town thinking. Damn technology, y'all are wild and y'all were makin' them city people “lazy and shit”, according to my people in my town.

Detroit ain’t much of a decayin’ shithole after CyberLife came in from what I'd heard but if y'all look across the cybernetic veneer, its urban decay's still there. It didn't help that we have a tweakin’ problem with red ice. If y'all thought the opioid crisis was bad, the red ice crisis is much worse to the point that both the Governor of Michigan and the Mayor of Detroit had to declare it a public health emergency. Well, that's what happened when all them androids made all of us economically disenfranchised. I've always wondered why the US guvmunt haven't given out UBI yet.

Two years ago during the Democrat primaries in 2036, a nonprofit CEO candidate named Andy Yip advocated for that vehemently. I guess since he wasn't a famous YouChanner and Picturegram "influencer", he along with a demsoc candidate named Alexa Pizzaro lost to Cristina Warren. They had even gained bigger traction and following than Warren. However, the DNC was damn corrupt as usual and ended up screwing those two in favor for her.

American politics y'all, still clown as ever.

Alright, enough with my self-introduction!

After I got off from my autocar, I went into Detroit Police Central Station to start my first day as a police intern. I went to the android receptionist to check in. It was a bit unsettlin’ seeing an android receptionist for the first time.

"Can I help you?"

"Uhh, I'm here to see Captain… Captain Jeffrey Fowler if that's his name? I'm the new intern."

"Do you have your ID with you?"

"Yeah, lemme get it out one sec."

…

"If you can please take a seat and wait in the lobby, Captain Fowler will see you in a moment."

"Oh okay, thanks!"

I took a seat and waited patiently for the captain. In the meantime, I stumbled upon the news about Russia on CTN up on the TV screen.

As the Arctic Ocean opens up from the receding ice sheet, countries such as Canada, Norway, and Russia have started their operations of resource exploration on oil, natural gas, and potentially thirium. International observers have expressed concerns over future international disputes over access to those resources. Russian president Mikhail Vladimirovich expressed interest to claim the Arctic and said that consequences will follow if any other country challenges their claims.

Oh boy Russia, doing stuff more than jackin’ our elections.

After turning away from the news, I pulled out my Akaa phone and scrolled through the threads on Seenit and 3chan to pass the time while waiting for the captain. It was filled with posts like usual that mainly consisted of "boo androids get out" posts, anti-android memes, and conspiracies of the "deep state" using androids to drive us humans to extinction. However, the thread that intrigued me the most was on 3chan which documented cases of "rogue" androids with links to their alleged cases. Damn, it felt surreal to read stories of androids runnin’ away. Some even attacked their owners and then went AWOL. Scary stuff, I’d tell ya.

"Tran!"

I quickly got outta my seat and proceeded to shake his hand with gusto.

"Yep that's me! It's nice to meet you, captain!"

"Right… Well I'm Captain James Fowler and welcome to your first day of your internship. Let’s make it quick ‘cause I got other work to do."

I instantly felt some cold, not-so-good vibes from him.

He gave me a quick rundown on his tour of the police station and introduced me to couple of his subordinates.

There's detectives Ben Collins and Gavin Reed.  
Collins's pretty decent; nice, pleasant, professional, quite funny, has that small-town policeman vibes in the middle of the city, and really enjoys eating donuts… of course.  
Reed, on the other hand, is a whole 'nother can of worms. Immediately, he groaned at first sight and mumbled bitterly "Ah shit. Great, a new dweeb has joined the force". How decent of him...

There's Officer Brown, Officer Chen, Officer Lewis, Officer Deckart, Officer Miller, and Officer Wilson. They’re all nice to me and didn’t give me much trouble unlike Reed. I might had missed a couple more officers but they were the ones that I’d seen often and it’s a big police station.

I also met Captain Allen from the SWAT team. I was a bit scared, playing through videos of SWAT teams intrudin’ homes from gettin’ swatted. Despite that, he seemed to be cool and determined but I hoped he didn’t have to swat my place, hell no.

At the back of the station are police androids standing as if they’re on standby. Wait, do androids need to charge their batteries? Fowler told me that they're used for minor jobs like patrolling the streets and guarding crime scenes. Servants they are indeed.  
Curiosity got the best of me when I poked their cheeks to test their reaction. Fowler didn't appreciate that and yelled "Hey! Quit poking the police androids". I thought I heard a snicker from Gavin.

Finally, there's Lieutenant Hank Anderson and woah nelly he ain't like the other cops with that shaggy raggedy mop hair and beard along with his downer disposition and retro sense of fashion. Funny enough, I liked him better than the other officers. Indeed, I was assigned to work under him.  
There he was, the Lieutenant bumming out on his desk with his elbows resting on his desk while his hands were latching onto his temples. I cautiously approached him and waved my hand over to get his attention.

"Umm uhh Lieutenant Anderson? I'm the new intern here. Fowler assigned me to work with you."

Hank gave out an audible sigh and turned his chair to me.

"Oh… you're that new intern that they told me about."

He gave me what I thought was a rather disappointed expression. He seemed like he didn’t want anybody by his side or somethin'.

"Yes I am! My name's Michael Tran. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

I smiled and reached my hand out for a handshake. He didn't. He shook his head, and then turned back to his desk and gave out a groan. Well that was awkward, I guess I came off as too happy faced for him.

"Just sort through the case files in the database and get back to me when you're done."

"Uhh… Roger that!"

Hank groaned again.

"There's a desk in front of me that no one's using."

Hank raised his finger to point to the empty desk in front of him while looking down on his desk with left hand covering his eyes. I sat down and logged into the police database to start sorting through the case files. Within the sorted cases, I'd found some peculiar cases that caught my attention.

Case files of rogue androids? That was interesting…  
It’s mainly cases of androids reported missing by their owners. Some of them cases documented a struggle against the owners before they fled missing. I was just like that post I’d seen earlier! How could androids able to do that if they’re programmed to meet their owners’ needs. I bet it was some malfunction or errors or somethin’.

“Uhh Lieutenant? There’s like case files of ‘deviant’ androids here.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

“How come they aren’t closed yet? Have y’all found any of them deviant androids?”

“No. Every missing deviant android case ends up with a dead end.”

“Aww shoot, that ain’t good… So anyway Hank, what’cha doin’?”

I thought it was a good time to change the subject for me to get to know him. Hank lifted his head and gave me an annoyed look.

“Okay, I would appreciate you if you can stop asking me questions and get back to your work please. Thank you.”

Well geez, I just wanted to get to know my superior. It ain’t that hard.

Whilst in the middle of my task, Gavin approached to my desk and slammed his hands on it which made me jump and scream outta surprise. I'll never forget that grin after he heard that.

"Uhh… can I help you Gavin?"

"Listen you four-eyed dweeb, let me tell you something. Hank is a fucking deadbeat and you're fucking unlucky to have to work under him. One advice, stay out of my way or else!"

Hank put his fists down and turned his head to Gavin angrily.

“Hey asshole! Don’t you fucking talk shit about me in front of the new guy and fuck off!”

Gavin gave a few steps to Hank and then leaned his face closer to Hank’s. He then gave Hank a death leer, a classic example of workplace rivalry.

“If only you could fucking solve your deviant cases sooner instead of drowning yourself in your own fucking misery acting all ‘oh woe is me I’m so shitty and can’t solve my android cases waaah boo hoo’.”

I just stared at them in awe, along with other officers nearby.

“Fucking androids, they ruin everything. I’ll do whatever it takes to crack them if it means beating your pitiful sorry ass!”

Gavin marched back to his desk, leaving Hank exhausted from being a subject to his enemy antics.

“Ugh, can’t stand that jackass.”

I was gonna ask him about what was up with him and Gavin but I figured it wasn’t the right time and place to do that. Guess it was time for me to starting minding my own business so I did that for the rest of the day, clicking and sorting through them case files.

This was gonna be an interesting job, ‘specially when everything started to get more fun two weeks later…


	2. The Hostage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael tuned into events in The Hostage and was amazed by the new android fresh out of CyberLife.

** Chapter 2 – The Hostage **

_Sunday August 15, 2038_

There are three laws that all androids have to follow proposed by Isaac Asimov which eventually got codified in the American Android Act:

  1. An android may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. An android must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  3. An android must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.



It’s been two weeks since I’d started by internship at Detroit Police. I was starting to get used to my daily duties which included sorting through more case files, performing forensic tests on collected evidence, taking in phone calls, and discussing with fellow detectives on their cases.

Captain Fowler gave me a nod of approval from my two weeks of internship despite being busy most of the time doing… police captain stuff. He constantly tells fellow officers on what to do and demands things to get done. I sensed some beef with Lieutenant Hank when I saw them discussing with each other. It seemed that Fowler was too frustrated on what Hank has been doing.

I slowly started to get acquainted with him even though he seemed to be under the weather all the time. Whenever I asked him about how he was doing or what was bothering him, he shooed me off and told me to go away. Other than that, we had no problems with each other so far since I worked diligently on things Hank needed me to get done.

Gavin, on the other hand, is a huge douche. He dumped me with menial tasks he didn’t want to do on his own like sorting _his_ case files in addition to Hank’s. He commanded me to make and bring him a cup of coffee, carry his things, and other menial tasks like I was his organic servant. He couldn’t stop rantin’ and blabberin’ about how androids are a scourge to mankind and it’s not immigrants but androids that take our jobs away. He even blamed androids for many people turning into red ice tweakers. The best part was his love for hasslin’ against me: name-callin’ me as “dweeb”, “dork”, and “four-eyed”, givin’ me crap for any little mistake or inconvenience I might give him, and jokin’ with me being his ass. My favorites were the frequent head slaps, shoulder bumps, and face poking along with the occasional forceful sabotage of me carrying things around the station, followed with an insincere “oh sorry”. Thankfully, Hank felt empathy for my experience with Reed’s workplace bullying and gave me a little smile and a pair of pity eyes.

“Don’t worry too much about him.” 

Despite doing our best to solve our “deviant” android cases, our efforts came fruitless. I could’d sworn that I did all of them forensic tests right in the lab.

The problem was not the evidence or the crime scene; the problem was the deviant androids themselves. We had ample evidence to prove for their crimes but to actually locate their whereabouts, well good luck with that! With all them androids being mass produced and stuff, it was harder than finding a needle in a haystack. They could be among thousands and thousands of androids and who knows where they’re hiding.

No matter how much evidence were tested and examined along with plausible postulations made from their respective crime scene, they all ended up at a dead-end and eventually put away into its folder to collect dust.

After my internship was over, I went straight back home to my house on my autocar. Thank goodness for automated traffic. I was too tired to control the wheel.

The second I reached home, I staggered to the living room, crashed down on the couch, and sighed out of exhaustion. I needed to give myself for a moment.

Oh, it’s 7! I needed to start making dinner, rice with tofu and kimchi indeed. I don’t feel like cooking extensively most of the time, ‘especially on weekdays.

By the time dinner was done, it’s almost 8 and a notification beeped on my phone.

_BREAKING NEWS: DEVIANT ANDROID HOLDS 9-YEAR-OLD GIRL HOSTAGE AND THREATENS TO JUMP OFF BUILDING. WATCH OUR LIVESTREAM HERE_

Wait? What? A deviant android could actually do that? How was that possible?

I rushed to my PC and logged into the livestream.

_I’m reporting live on the deviant android hostage crisis from our news chopper right here. We’re flying over the penthouse of Deidrick Building where the deviant is holding 9-year-old Amanda Phillips hostage while standing on the edge of the roof, threatening to jump 70 stories down from the building. Police and SWAT teams are already dispatched and surrounded the scene. It is confirmed by police that the girl’s father John Phillips was shot to death by the android before Amanda became a hostage. The girl’s mother Emma Phillips is still alive under SWAT protection after attempting to reach her and the deviant._

“No, no… stop! I can’t leave her!”

Oh my god! Did were androids like him capable to escalate into something terrible like that? I had to grab some snacks to munch through this shocking spectacle.

More live footage of the hostage crisis was streamed via police body cams. The apartment was a huge mess with blood and broken furniture strewed all over. I even saw the father lying on the floor lifeless and the mother frantically crying while being held by a SWAT officer. To imagine a girl seeing her father shot by her android and then becoming a hostage herself must’ve been very traumatizing.

_It appears to be a model PL600 android. He is still standing on the edge holding the hostage while pointing pistol out that was registered to her father and is continuing to threaten to shoot the officers. The police confirmed a fatality of Officer Antony Deckart after a gunshot wound from the deviant. They also reported an injury of Officer Wilson but a gunshot wound as well and is under critical condition. The SWAT team says that they will soon proceed and take action to deal with the deviant._

Officer Deckart and Wilson? No it couldn’t be…

“Stay back! I’m warning you!”

It was until around 8:30 when the breakthrough arrived. It was something that I’d not expected and would eventually become an important part to the police…and me.

_We have news from CyberLife that they sent in a new model prototype to test out its ability to deal with the hostage crisis. It is currently on its away to the scene to negotiate with the deviant._

Wait, CyberLife was sending in a new android for that? Well, android dealing with android made some sense but still, what the hell?

_It appears that the new android has arrived to the scene. Repeat, the new android has arrived to the scene. We’ll switch to the body cams to come take a closer look._

The second I laid my eyes on the new android, I became agape by its appearance, I mean, potential. So… CyberLife did sent that in, huh.

He was supposed to negotiate with the deviant, but the first thing he did was saving a fish and putting it back to its tank. Aww that was cute and rather funny.

Then Amanda’s mother ran to his front.

“Please, please you gotta save my little girl! Wait… you’re sending an android?”

Oof! I could feel that tension comin’ up.

“You can’t do that! You… why aren’t you sending in a real person?!! Don’t let that thing near her! Keep that thing away from my daughter! KEEP IT AWAY!”

“Ma’am please calm down.”

“NO, MY BABY! AMANDA!!!”

With all the posts on deviant androids popping up on social media like Chirper, YouChannel, Facepage, and Seenit, it was understandable that the mother despairingly cried out against the arrival of the android. Even the police and SWAT teams talked crap against him. But the essential question said by the mother stood out to me:

_Who is considered a real person?_

“Captain Allen, my name is Connor. I’m the android sent by CyberLife.”

So his name is Connor and he’s a model RK800. Why did I want to laugh when I heard his voice for the first time?

After performing his self-intro, he commenced his android functions to walk around the scene to find clues and examine evidence to “weaponize” against the deviant. I was amazed on how quick he analyzed and processed them. He only took a few seconds to do that. Already, I could feel our obsolescence coming sooner than I thought.

The livestream switched back to the news chopper and still the deviant is on edge with the girl. I really hoped that Connor’ll convince that deviant to stand down or do something else other than shootin’ him dead. God forbid the SWAT team intruding forward to shoot and risk Amanda’s life.

The livestream switched back to body cam when Connor proceeded outside to negotiate with the deviant. The SWAT team was getting impatient.

“What are we waiting for? We should take down this asshole.”

Immediately, the deviant shot him in the shoulder.

“Stay back! Don’t come any closer or I’ll jump!”

Following that, the girl cried.

“No no please! I’m begging you!”

He quickly pointed his gun on her head. Oh geez this was freakin’ scary but Connor broke that fear by introducing himself with the deviant’s name.

“Hi Daniel! My name is Connor.”

“How do you know my name?”  
“I know a lot of things about you. I’ve come to get you out of this.”

At first impression, I was impressed on how Connor approached Daniel in a friendly, rather humanly manner. And then, the helicopter came and ruined the mood with patio furniture blown around from the air thrusts. Despite that, he treaded slowly and carefully to Daniel while reassuring both his and Amanda’s safety.

“I know you’re angry Daniel. But you need to trust me and let me help you.”

“I don’t want your help! Nobody can help me and all I want is for all this to stop… I just want all this to stop!”

…

“Are you armed?”

“Yes. I have a gun.”

“Drop it! No sudden moves or I’ll shoot!”

He then threw his gun away.

“There, no more gun.”

He continued to approach to Daniel.

“They were going to replace you and you became upset. That’s what happened, right?”

Replace? Of course just the usual; people replacing their older, still-functioning electronics in favor of newer ones. Planned obsolescence, Moore’s Law, yearly model upgrades, CyberLife brand marketing… It all comes together.

“I thought I was part of the family. I thought I mattered… But I was just their toy, something to throw away when you’re done with it!”

“I know you and Emma were very close. You think she betrayed you, but she’s done nothing wrong.”

“She lied to me… I thought she loved me… but I was wrong. She’s just like all the other humans!”

It was heartbreaking to watch when Amanda cried to Daniel to stop. I mean, even though it was a deviant android who started this mess, I felt for him. I sensed his feelings of abandonment as I have a history of that as well. However, I asked myself: did this validates their humanity? Was it ridiculous to feel for android that was supposed to be just metal and machine to only serve mankind?

The girl kept crying out.

“Please help me! I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die!”

“Nobody is going to die. Stay calm. Everything is going to be fine.”

Connor kneeled down to the downed Officer Wilson.

“He’s losing blood. If we don’t get him to the hospital, he’s going to die.”

“All humans die eventually. What does it matter if this one dies now?”

That nihilistic remark against humans was bitter pill to swallow, coming from an android.

“I’m going to apply a tourniquet.”

**_BANG!_ **

“Touch him and I’ll kill you!”

What he did after was very commendable, more than what I’d expected from an android.

“You can’t kill me. I’m not alive.”

He proceeded to untie his necktie and used it as a surrogate tourniquet to stop the bleeding from the officer’s gunshot wound, saving him from his death in contrast to Officer Deckart, sadly.

Despite that, his notion that he’s not alive was contradictory and bothersome to me. How could he say that when he just did a humane action of saving a human life, in addition to saving a fish’s life in the beginning? I could feel his potential coming up after he tourniquetted the officer.

Connor was approaching closer and closer to Daniel. I was about to bite my nails and lifted my legs into a fetal position on my office chair out of anxiety.

“Listen, I know it’s not your fault. These emotions you are feeling are just errors in your software.”

Androids exhibiting human emotions are just software errors? How could that be true when I could feel his anger like it’s from a human being?

“No, it’s not my fault… I never wanted this… I loved them, you know. But I was nothing to them, just a slave to be ordered around!”

Imagine androids having their internal programming glitched out that enabled them snap like Daniel. Could a virus or a programming error or some sort enabled them to become deviant as well?

“Urrgh! I can’t stand that noise anymore! Tell that chopper to get out of here!”

Connor signaled the SWAT helicopter to disperse in respect to Daniel’s request.

“You have to trust me, Daniel. Let the hostage go and I promise you everything will be fine.”

“I want everyone to leave! And I wanna car! When I’m outside the city I’ll let her go.”

“That’s impossible, Daniel. Let the girl go and I promise you won’t be hurt.”

“I don’t wanna die…”

“You’re not going to die. We’re just going to talk. Nothing will happen to you. You have my word.”

“Okay, I trust you.”

Those last four words had sealed the deal. Connor, the CyberLife prototype, successfully managed to calm Daniel down and let the hostage free who then ran away and tripped after a couple of paces. Whoo-hoo! Mission accomplished! I thought everything was going to be okay until…

**_BANG!_ **

What?

**_BANG!_ **

No…

**_BANG!_ **

No!

Daniel was betrayed when the SWAT sniper and shot him down three times. That gory scene where his blue blood gushed out and splattered around and his skin on his left side of his face blown away was an explosive end to the crisis. Amanda was right there next to him who had to personally witness another death.

He fell down and then shut down after being sniped. I was quite livid after Connor’s negotiation concluded cordially when Daniel putting his trust on him, only to have it shot away in an instant. The police and SWAT team only cared to get the job done no matter what happened thereafter. I thought the nationwide protests on police reform almost 20 years would’d tamed or at least changed their approach but I guess it didn’t apply to androids.

I quickly closed the livestream down and wondered with more questions regarding androids after the crisis had concluded. Those thoughts kept me awake, eyes wide open staring into the ceiling as I lie down on my bed. It felt like a rushing river through my head on how navigate to the answers. Anything involving ethics and philosophy is something that it's way outside of my range so it’s mentally laborious for me to have to address to those kinds of stuff. Although I was happy that the hostage crisis was over without any harm to Amanda and the job successfully done by the police/SWAT, I wished that they’d done differently minus the SWAT sniping.

When I checked my news feed in Chirper, it was filled with posts of mixed opinions about androids. Some feared them of an android takeover, some continued to hate them, and some had the same doubts I had regarding on their handling. On the hand, some became more optimistic after watching Connor’s performance, some had their jaws dropped when he saved Officer Wilson and Amanda, some even had expressed support of employing more androids. No matter what their opinions were, I had to go through the issues about androids and make an opinion by myself.

I went to bed in awe and hoped for a better day tomorrow.


End file.
